Episode 1
(Episode title: The Beginning)
“Pink Moon,” by Nick Drake (1972)
Played in episode 1 during Will's opening narrative comment, in which, writing under a tree by the lake, he tells viewers he's about to go to Rawley, and during the first non-narrative scene, in which Scout bicycles into Bella’s gas station. Played again later in episode 1, during the scene in which Finn catechizes and baptizes the JD rowing crew. Also played during the final the scene of episode 7, Bella’s sixteenth birthday party.
This is the first of six Nick Drake songs in the soundtrack of Young Americans (Pink Moon, From the Morning, Northern Sky, Things Behind the Sun, Which Will, and Place to Be). All date from 1969-72.
Along with "Over the Rainbow" as sung as sung by Israel Kamakawiwio'ole and "Goodbye" by The Crash Poets, "Pink Moon" is one of three songs that "frame" Young Americans, played in episode 1 or at the start of episode 2, and again either in episode 8 (the last episode) or at the end of episode 7.
I saw it written and I saw it say
Pink moon is on its way
And none of you stand so tall
Pink moon gonna get you all
It's a pink moon
It's a pink, pink, pink, pink, pink moon.
Comment: This is the lead song on the last album that Drake released before ending his life at age 25 in 1974. AllMusic’s reviewer calls it “the bleakest of them all” in an album of “elegant melancholia.” Its haunting instrumental beauty overshadows, and lulls the listener into ignoring, the ominous lyrics, "pink moon gonna get you all." In this song, as in Young Americans, astonishing beauty masks deep, desperate seriousness. Young Americans's repeated use of this song, including to open the drama, underscores its emotional seriousness, including Will's moral earnestness in "going to Rawley" and the high stakes in the Jake-Hamilton storyline.
Will "goes to Rawley" to escape the "pink moon" of complacency, personified by his father. By diverse sometimes surreally symbolic means, Young Americans suggests that the drama is Will's dream, as a mature writer, of moral rebirth and rejuvenation into continued moral and emotional growth - a dream of learning to seize opportunities to exceed expectations in realizing one's possibilities, which is what Finn calls the rowing crew to do in his catechism during which "Pink Moon" is played for the second time. Will becomes "young" - aware of the need to keep growing - and goes to a morally perfecting school personified by the Dean's son, Hamilton Fleming, who teaches that true love is possible by passing a modern version of the classic fairy-tale "test of true love" to save Jake Pratt.
Jake's "state is desperate," in the words of Viola’s soliloquy in Twelfth Night about the perils of cross-dressing, the first line of which – “I am the man” – Jake recites in episode 1. She engages in a pattern of self-destructive behaviors – switching schools every year, computer hacking for a hobby, keeping a motorbike at school illicitly, and pretending to be a boy at an all-boys’ boarding school despite being straight. The only poster on the walls of Jake’s dorm room (for Primal Scream’s Vanishing Point) promotes a 1997 rock album that celebrates a 1971 movie that celebrates suicide. Jake's mother underscores Jake's suicidal potential with a line about "suicidal pierced Goths" ironically applicable to Jake, who dresses in black leather. Jake's "pink moon" is what Jake is rebelling against and what Hamilton saves her from, namely despair of "true love," of love's being more than sex, a despair personified by Jake's mother. That Jake's "pink moon" is "gonna get us all" is implied by visual symbolism in the first Jake-Hamilton scene; Jake is identified with viewers by having Hamilton's camera point straight at the film camera (the viewer) when he first sees Jake.
Will's "pink moon" is closely related to Jake's: to grow morally and emotionally is to become more loving. To overcome complacency, it is necessary to believe that love is possible. The Will-Rawley storyline and the Jake-Hamilton storylines intersect more thematically than dramatically: Jake's salvation by Hamilton is a metaphor for Rawley's salvation of Will, as is suggested by having Hamilton first see Jake from a window above Rawley's door at the moment when Will, through that door, first enters Rawley.
“Six Packs,” by The Getaway People (Original version on their album, Turnpike Diaries, released 16 May 2000; modified version first published in 12 July 2000 airing of episode 1 of Young Americans.)
The theme song of Young Americans. Played during the lake run scene of episode 1, replayed during the credits near the start of each subsequent episode as originally aired in the USA, at the start of every odd-numbered episode in some countries, like France, where it was aired in four two-episode segments.
The song as used in Young Americans was modified from the original. The lyrics of the original first verse are shown below in parenthesis.
Throw on your backpacks, we'll be rollin' down the road,
Big schemes and wild dreams where ever we go.
People all around us, they shower us with love;
You better keep it coming, ‘cause we just can't get enough.
Chorus:
Where would we be without a little love?
You can't get by without a little love.
Everybody needs a little bit of love, sometimes.
(Lyrics of original first verse, not used in Young Americans:
Six packs and Big Macs keep us rolling down the road,
Cigarettes and coffee wherever we go.
Learn to appreciate those simple little things
And open up our arms to what the world may bring
Cramped in a van.
And we'll do the best we can
On a journey filled with tears and laughter.
From the Jersey Turnpike we set sail
On the getaway raft.
People all around us, they shower us with love;
You better keep it coming cause we just can't get enough
Chorus:
Where would we be without a little love?
You can't get by without a little love.
Everybody needs a little bit of love, sometimes.)
Comment: This song seems likely to have been chosen as the theme song of Young Americans for commercial reasons – perhaps by the show’s promoters at The WB or Columbia Tri-Star. Although it expresses our need for love, it is incongruously lighter in tone and substance than either most songs in the soundtrack or the drama as a whole. Moreover, the “lake run” scene during which this song plays and is replayed at the start of every episode, far from being representative of Young Americans, evinces an affectionless sexuality that is, at best, unrelated to the drama’s core – an argument that true love is possible, and an exploration of what it is.
Insofar as the “lake run” scene is included in episode 1 for artistic rather than commercial reasons, it may be to dramatize what Young Americans seeks to save us from – what Jake’s mother personifies and what Hamilton saves Jake from – despair of “true love,” of loving being more than sex, of compassion's ability to rule passion. Scout's remark about the "lake run" - "gotta love tradition" - may allude to the need to salvage faith in love from the shipwreck of traditional metaphysical religiosity, to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
“Light of the World,” written by Michael Parker, performed by Stem (on Stem demo tape, 1997)
Played during the scene of episode 1 in which Hamilton visits Jake in her dorm room while she is computer hacking.
“'Light of the World,' by Michael Parker" (without mention of Stem) has been in the musical credits for episode 1 of Young Americans since 2000, on the official website of the show. As indicated by the 12 June 1997 Metroactive article cited below, that song was composed by Parker for performance by the California-based rock band, "Stem," and was recorded as the fourth of eight songs on a 1997 Stem demo tape.
[BEGIN CITATION:]
"Sunnyvale's Michael Parker unleashes Stem's demo effort"
By Nicky Baxter, Metroactive [Silicon Valley, California], 12 June 1997
Wicked wah-wah guitar, propulsive rhythms and vocals swaddled in the Union Jack--the sound is London, circa 1967. But the members of the Bay Area's Stem aren't merely Anglophiles with a crush on the Beatles. Thanks to leader Michael Parker's knack for catchy melodies and topical lyrics, the quartet looks to be on the verge of making a serious dent in the local music scene. ...
Composed over a two-year period, the [group's new demo] tape reveals Parker's precocious vision. With the music written, Parker needed musicians to realize that vision onstage. To that end, guitarist Haroun, bassist Bob Flake and drummer Stephen Nutting were recruited. ...
Perhaps the most obviously Beatles-influenced tune, "Light of the World," could be mistaken for a first cousin of "I am the Walrus." It features sawing violins (synths, really) and other Euro-art music instrumentation, as well as the famed John Lennon intonation ("Coo-coo cashew").
[END CITATION]
"Light of the World," the fourth song on the 1997 Stem demo tape, is the same song played in episode 1 of Young Americans during scene in which Hamilton visits Jake in her room while she computer hacks. A 3.8 MB MP3 file of that song, extracted from an MP3 conversion of the 1997 Stem demo tape, is accessible from the bottom of this webpage.
No lyrics or downloadable recording of this song appears to be readily available elsewhere online.
Below is a tentative original transcription of the lyrics. It may contain errors.
Empty days of army blades were made for you to love your own sorrow,
Stray to seas you've never seen, re-atrophy and give away tomorrow.
I’ve seen the Light of the World, seen her shining down on me.
I have faith in the glory of her smile
Light of the World, be a dawn to you and me
Take me down.
Morning's light through darkened days will lift the haze and sharpen our desire.
Little thieves on bending knees now pop up freed and gather round the fire.
I’ve seen the Light of the World, seen her praying down on me.
I have faith in the powers of her smile.
Light of the World, bring a dawn to you and me
Take me down, take me down, take me down.
I’ve seen the Light of the World, seen her stretching down on me.
I have faith in the goodness of her smile.
Light of the World, see her dawn to you and me
Take me down, take me down, take me down.
Comment: Although the explicitly post-Christian refrain of "Light of the World" does not play in Young Americans, the drama's soundtrack repeatedly does not play the part of a song most applicable to the dramatic context, leaving the point implied, not explicit. For example, in episode 2, "I've Heard Everything Now," played in context of Will's worry that he does not belong at Rawley, cuts off before the line saying, "you're right where you belong;" and in the last episode, "Goodbye," clearly played as a farewell to viewers, cuts off just before the line, "you'll never see me again."
This song's traditional Christian religious rhetoric, albeit used in very post-Christian lyrics, underscores the main theme of the scene, which is that Jake is in hell and desperately needs saving. That is symbolized visually by the (totally fictitious) name of the "Molten Gaming Systems" software that she is using to hack. This is the scene in which Jake’s pattern of self-destructive behavior - including computer-hacking and school-switching as well as keeping a bike at school illicitly - first becomes apparent, although neither viewers nor Hamilton yet know that it extents to pretending to be a boy at an all-boys’ boarding school. It also is the scene that begins Young Americans’ development of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, which Will Krudski recited in episode 3/20 of Dawson’s Creek, the second of the three DC episodes in which he appeared to promote Young Americans to viewers of DC, as a summer fill-in for which Young Americans was originally aired.
The contextual reference of the lyrics of "the Light of the World" seems to be Jake's feeling when Hamilton shows up at the door of her dorm room for the first time: "I've seen the light of the world, seen her shining down on me." That gender reversal ironically reverses the gender reversal of the lyrics: in traditional Christian rhetoric, "the Light of the World" is Christ. The use of this song in this scene not only connotes that a troubled girl has found her emotional savior, but also invites us to consider Hamilton Fleming as a Christ figure.
“From the Morning,” by Nick Drake (1972)
Played in episode 1 while Scout takes Bella out riding on his bike for their first date, and in episode 7 during the diner scene in which Scout and Bella discuss Bella's relationship with her mother.
A day once dawned, and it was beautiful
A day once dawned from the ground
Then the night she fell
And the air was beautiful
The night she fell all around.
So look see the days
The endless colored ways
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning.
And now we rise
And we are everywhere
And now we rise from the ground
And see she flies
And she is everywhere
See she flies all around.
So look see the sights
The endless summer nights
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning.
Comment: This song's doleful music coexists uneasily with its hopeful lyrics. But in Young Americans, as in the classic fairy tales and myths that it re-tells, it is life-threatening sadness that evokes “true love.” Hamilton does what he does for Jake because he must – because Jake’s emotional neediness leaves him no choice. He does what any decent guy would hope to be able to do in his situation. Although he may do it better, that’s what makes the Jake-Hamilton story cathartic, a “there but for the grace of God go I” experience for viewers.
“Tender,” by Blur (1999)
Played during two consecutive scenes in which Bella and Scout dance in front of a late-1940s pickup truck, and in which Jake strips to her underwear, revealing to viewers that she is not a boy but a cross-dressing girl enrolled at an all-boys’ boarding school.
Tender is the night
lying by your side.
Tender is the touch
of someone that you love too much.
Tender is the day
the demons go away.
Lord, I need to find
someone who can heal my mind.
Come on, come on, come on
get through it.
Come on, come on, come on
love's the greatest thing.
Come on, come on, come on
get through it.
Come on, come on, come on
love's the greatest thing, that we have,
I'm waiting for that feeling, waiting for that feeling,
waiting for that feeling to come...
Chorus:
Oh my baby, oh my baby
oh why, oh my
Oh my baby, oh my baby
oh why, oh my
Tender is the ghost
The ghost I love the most.
Hiding from the sun
waiting for the night to come.
Tender is my heart
it's screwing up my life.
Lord, I need to find
someone who can heal my mind.
(Chorus)
Tender is the night
lying by your side.
Tender is the touch
of someone that you love to much.
Tender is my heart
it's screwing up my life.
Lord, I need to find
someone who can heal my mind...
(Chorus)
Oh my baby, oh my baby
Heal me, heal me
Comment: This song has two related but distinct parts: a musically gentle prayer for emotional healing, and a musically much more forceful paean to erotic love. Only the part that is a prayer for emotional healing plays in Young Americans; but that erotic love is a means of emotional healing, that passion can serve compassion, is at the core of the Jake-Hamilton storyline.
It plays as viewers first learn that Jake is in desperate need of emotional healing – troubled enough to pretend to be a boy at an all-boys’ boarding school, despite being straight. It also plays during a Scout-Bella interaction, inviting viewers to reflect that neither Scout nor Bella needs emotional healing nearly so desperately as Jake does. Bella has emotional problems; she’s still traumatized by her abandonment by her birth parents. But compared to Jake, she’s a poster child for emotional well-being. That makes the Jake-Hamilton story more urgent, more intense, more driven by necessity, and more edifying, than the Bella-Scout storyline that it parallels throughout Young Americans. This song serves to highlight that contrast at the start of the drama.
“Northern Sky,” by Nick Drake (1970)
Played in the “you’d better run” scene (filmed in Georgia in 1999) of episode 1, as Bella and Scout talk on the boathouse dock, and in episode 2 as Will lingers outside his parent’s home after Sean’s party, watching his mother work while his father drinks. This latter scene, included in the more complete version of Young Americans broadcast in some countries, such as France, was omitted from the version originally broadcast in the USA on The WB in 2000.
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.
I've been a long time that I'm waiting
Been a long that I'm blown
I've been a long time that I've wandered
Through the people I have known
Oh, if you would and you could
Straighten my new mind's eye.
Would you love me for my money
Would you love me for my head
Would you love me through the winter
Would you love me 'til I'm dead
Oh, if you would and you could
Come blow your horn on high.
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.
“Over the Rainbow,” written by Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics) for first performance by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939), as sung by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole in his medley, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” (1993).
Played at the ends of episodes 1 and 8.
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
and wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me,
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
away above the chimney tops –
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow, why, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Why, oh why can't I?
Comment: Played at the end of the first and last episodes of Young Americans, this classic tribute to the power of imaginative dreaming is one of three songs that provide a musical “frame” for the drama – comparable to the symbolic visual “frame” provided by the shot of Hamilton looking at the viewer through his camera as we arrive at Rawley near the start of episode 1, and the drama’s last shot, a note in a mirror assuring WILL (and, because it’s in a mirror, the viewer) that he can come back to Rawley. The other pieces of YA's musical frame are “Goodbye” by The Crash Poets, played at the start of episode 2 and near the end of the last episode, and "Pink Moon" by Nick Drake, played at the start of episode 1 and the end of episode 7.
This “framing” song serves in Young Americans to express, musically, the drama’s third love story – Will’s love for Rawley, which saves him as the Dean's son who personifies Rawley saves Jake – and enfolds the contrasting Jake-Hamilton and Bella-Scout storylines. Rawley is Oz-like, as Will makes clear by calling Rawley, at the start of episode 4, "this world where dreams really do come true."
This song is only the most conspicuous of YA’s four allusions to The Wizard of Oz. The others are: (1) in episode 3, Hamilton’s mother’s nickname for him, “Munchie,” a real-world parental nickname for kids derived from “Munchkin"; (2) Jake’s mother’s frustration at being too old to play Dorothy in episode 5; and (3) the Oz references in the lyrics of Guster’s “What You Wish For,” played at the start of episode 3.
Young Americans’ repeated use of contemporary renditions of old songs, including its framing by a brilliant 1990’s improvement on a 1930’s classic, underscores that the drama itself is a retelling of classic stories, as Antin repeatedly stressed in press interviews. This resonates with the drama’s many non-musical anachronisms and its theme of rebirth and rejuvenation by imaginative dreaming, articulated by Sean at the drive-in in episode 3: “Everything old becomes hip.”
Ichabod Grubb
Created: April 2014
Last updated: April 2014